The Spell Gone Wrong
by Kokara1352
Summary: A simple spell. That's all Twilight thought it was after finding a strange spell called the "Xen portal" in a spell book somepony left on her doorstep, but something has gone wrong. Something has gone so, so wrong. These monsters, these things, are appearing in Ponyville, attacking and killing anything they can. Now Twilight, must stop these monsters before Equestria is doomed.


Chapter 1

It was night in Ponyville and all was silent. The moon was full; the stars glittered in the night sky, and the only sounds that could be heard was the chirping of crickets and the occasional hoot of an owl emanating from the Everfree Forest. The only ponies who were awake were a few soldiers that were being stationed in Ponyville who were standing guard. They had recently been sent out to investigate reports of Changeling activity near Manehattan. After failing to find any changelings, they decided to rest in Ponyville for the night before they return to Canterlot.

Just beyond the town's edge, a lone figure stood upon a hill overlooking the tranquil town. He was a man, dressed in a dull gray business suit with a purple tie, carrying a briefcase. His eyes were turquoise in color and his hair was slicked back. In his right hand he held a brief case while in his left he was holding a leather bound book with a small velvet bag that appeared to have something inside it. He looked down at the town, slowly looking from left to right, and smirked.

"_Ssssso peaceful, ssssso quaint, ssssso… innocent_," he said to himself, putting noticeable emphasis on the "S" and random pauses between words. _"It's too bad that all of that has to… come to such an end_."

He looked over to the Golden Oaks Library, a hollowed-out tree that served as the home for the one he was looking for.

"_Twilight Ssssparkle_," he whispered, looking down at the book and bag. "_I hope you're ready… for what'ssss to come_."

While almost all of Ponyville was asleep, Twilight Sparkle, along with her dragon assistant Spike, were the sole exceptions. Twilight had plans to clean up and reorganize her Library after noticing a few books were out of place more than two weeks ago, but, for the most part, she had been kept busy by recent events. When she was free, however, she forgot all about it, and Spike didn't even bother to remind her. He claimed that he forgot too, but she found that hard to believe, believing that he never brought it up to avoid work.

"Twi-Twilight?" Spike uttered, struggling to talk due to the large number of books he was carrying. "We've b-been working f-for th-three hours. D-do y-y-you think we could t-take a break or s-something?"

"No Spike," Twilight replied with mild annoyance. "We need to finish this now. We've put it off for too long."

"B-but it's 11:30, and I'm s-so tired. Can't we w-w-wait till m-morning?"

"So we can forget again and put it off even longer? I don't think so."

He set down the books next to himself and after taking a few moments to catch his breath, he looked up at Twilight, frustration in his eyes.

"You could always leave yourself a note to remind yourself in the morning, you know."

"And what if that note gets misplaced, Spike, then I'll never remember. Besides, we're awake now and there's nothing to keep us busy so we might as well get this over with."

"How would it get misplaced?" Spike asked.

"Anything could happen." Twilight answered back.

"I'll remind you in the morning," he pleaded. "I'll definitely remember. I promise, heck I'll Pinkie promise. Cross my heart and hope to-"

"That won't be necessary Spike," Twilight interrupted. "We're doing this now."

"Ugh, fine," Spike moaned, realizing he wasn't going to win this argument. "Anyway, where do these books go?"

"Most of those should go into the "History of Equestria" section" answered Twilight. She used her magic to pick up the books and arranged them to encircle her, rotating the circle of books to make sure she was right.

She stopped at one particular book and pulled it out of the circle, handing it to Spike.

"This one belongs in the mythology section. Please put it there, Spike."

Spike looked at the book in his hands. It was a relatively thick, dark green book titled "The mythology and mythical creatures of Equestria" written in large gold letters. Intrigued, Spike opened the book and flipped through several pages and landed on one page that really got Spike's attention.

"Twilight?"

"Yeah Spike?"

"What's a human?"

"A human?" Twilight turned around and asked. She couldn't remember exactly what a human was, but the word sounded familiar.

"Yeah, a human." Spiked replied as he turned the book towards Twilight, the pages displaying a two bipedal creatures of differing heights, both having two limbs extending from their shoulders with five appendages extending from the ends of those limbs. Both appeared to be relatively hairless, except on their heads, where the taller one's hair appeared much shorter than the other creature's, which appeared to go past her shoulders. The taller one was wearing a simple shirt and pants, while the shorter one wore a dress.

"Oh yeah, humans!" Twilight recalled with a smile. "I remember reading about them from that same book. If I recall correctly they were a race of bipedal monkeys.

"Monkeys?" Spike inquired, clearly confused "These things don't look anything like monkeys."

"Well, "monkey" is a bit of an inaccurate term. A better term would be an "ape."" Twilight answered.

"An ape?" Spike looked back at the picture. "How can it be an ape? Apes are big, strong and covered in hair. There just look… weak and scrawny."

"Well according to most legends, they were very distantly related to apes sharing a common ancestor. Not much is known about them, as there are few sources to collect from. Star Swirl the Bearded wrote a little bit about them in one of his earlier works. He said that they came from another world, but he didn't mention the name. He said that while they didn't have any real special abilities, like magic, or flight, most were pretty intelligent, even more than ponies.

"Wow" Spike said out loud, looking down at the picture "Um, Twilight?"

"Yeah Spike?"

"Do you think that humans were real?"

Twilight chuckled, "Of course not Spike, they're just what the book says, mythical."

"B-but how do you know." Spike asked

"Because Spike, there's no evidence that they ever existed. If they did, then why haven't we seen any? How come there no remains, no fossils, there's nothing to verify their existence. Now come on, we've talked enough; we need to finish this up."

"But I wanna learn more Twilight." Spike whined.

"Maybe tomorrow, now we have to finish, besides, once we finish, you'll be able to find the rest of the mythology books in the morning."

"Oh alright" Spike replied, mildly annoyed.

"Alright," Twilight said. "Now where were we?"

We finished the "History of Equestria." Spike replied, clearly saddened by Twilight's refusal to let him learn more about the humans.

"Oh cheer up Spike; we're more than half-way done, if we keep up the pace we'll finish in about two hours."

"Oh, woopty freaking doo." Spike replied, his voice filled with indignation.

"SPIKE! LANGUAGE!" Twilight replied with hostility. Being up this late was starting to take its toll on Twilight, making her feel more irritable. Knowing that at least another two hours were needed to finish reorganizing the library, combined with Spike's attitude, were not helping her in the slightest and her temper began to flare up.

"OK, OK, I'm sorry." Spike said, backing away, clearly scared by Twilight's retaliation.

Twilight exhaled, "Sorry Spike, I'm just feeling tired. Could you grab those books on the podium by the window while I sort these other books out? She pointed her hoof across the room, to the podium with two books on top of it.

"Alight" Spike answered. He walked over, grabbing a stool to help him reach. As he did that, Twilight used her magic to grab the books next to her and placed them into the "spells and incantations" section. Spike placed the stool in front of the podium and climbed up to grab the books, but as he did, he saw something that made his blood run cold.

"HOLY CARP!" Spike screamed, falling off the stool and dropping the books.

"Spike! What happened?!" Twilight shouted, running over to see if he was alright.

"I saw a human, Twilight; I swear to Celestia I saw one!" Spike said as he got back to his feet.

"You so a huma- oh for goodness sakes," Twilight muttered, shaking her head. "For the last time Spike, humans aren't real."

"But I know what I saw Twilight," Spike retorted. "It looked identical to the picture in that book. But it was weird, it was wearing a suit, tie and everything, and it was carrying a briefcase. I think it had something in its other hand, but I don't know, I only saw it for a second, it was standing by some bushes looking straight at me, smiling." Spike shuddered. "Gosh, it looked so creepy."

"Spike, you're just imagining things," Twilight assured him. "Listen, why don't you go up to bed? I'll finish this on my own."

"Really, Twilight, are you sure?" Spike asked, hoping this wasn't some joke.

"Yes Spike, I'm sure." Twilight replied. Truth be told, Twilight didn't want to send Spike up, but if he's that tired that he's starting to see things, she has no choice. Now it'll take even longer to finish up.

But before Spike could head up, there was a knock at the door making both of them look towards the door in confusion. No one except a few soldiers should be up at this hour, and there's no reason they would want anything from either of them. To be sure they heard right, they waited a few moments, and there was another knock.

"I wonder who that could be." Spike asked, turning to Twilight.

"I'll check it out, see what whoever it is wants," Twilight answered, with mild animosity. It was already pretty late and she still needed more than two hours to finish up. The last thing she wanted was some visitor. "Whoever it is, they better be fast. "

She walked towards the door, and opened it; really hoping whoever it was didn't take up too much of her time.

"Yes, can I help-." She began to say as she opened the door, but stopped herself. There was no pony there. Confused she stuck her head out and looked around, but couldn't see anypony in the night.

"Strange, I know I heard somepony knocking." She began to walk forward to look around a little more, but felt something strange underneath her hoof. She looked down, and saw that she stepped on a leather-bound book, with a small velvet bag next to it that looked as if it contained something.

"What is this?" she thought to herself. Who would knock at her door at this hour, only to leave a book and a bag containing whatever at her doorstep?

"Who is it?" Spike asked.

"No one," Twilight answered back, using her magic to pick up the book and bag. "Just this book and bag at the doorstep."

"A book and a bag, that's it? Spike questioned.

"Yeah, it's weird, whoever it was, why would anyone want to give this to me, why couldn't they give it to me themselves, and why now at 11:45 at night?

Twilight took a better look at the book. It was a thin maroon colored book that appeared to be very old, as its cover looked extremely worn out. The titles simply said "Spells" in large, jet black letters.

"A spell book?" Twilight asked herself out loud.

"Maybe it's a birthday gift." Spike commented, shrugging,

"Spike, my birthday's in two months. Remember?" Twilight reminded him.

"Um, oh yeah! I remembered!" Spike exclaimed, smiling.

"Yeah, OK, sure." Twilight replied, rolling her eyes.

"Wait a minute," Spike then said, eyes widening. "What if it was that human I saw outside? What if he was the one who left the book and bag? I could have sworn he was holding something in his hands when I saw him, it has to be him."

"For the last time Spike," Twilight said, raising her voice. "You only imagined it. Humans don't exist. It had to have been a pony that left it. "

"Yeah fine, whatever. Anyway, what's in the bag?" Spike asked.

"Huh," Twilight said, "Let me check."

Twilight used her magic to turn the bag over and out fell a pale yellow rock that was about the size of a golf ball.

"What's that, some kind of gem?" Spike asked.

"I don't know Spike," Twilight replied. "I've never seen a gem like this before."

"Well," Spike replied, picking up the gem. "There's only one to find out." And he brought the gem up to his mouth, hoping for a good treat.  
"SPIKE!" Twilight yelled, pulling the gem out of Spike's hand with her magic, "What are you doing?!" You don't just eat random rocks that you know nothing about!"

"Sorry Twilight, but I'm really hungry, and that rock looks soooooo good." Spike said as his mouth began to water.

"That's no excuse!" Twilight shouted anger in her eyes. "What if it was poisonous? What if it got you sick, or worse?"

"Sorry Twilight" Spike said, cowering a bit from Twilight's burst of anger.

Twilight took a deep breath, "It's OK Spike. Just… just be more careful next time, alright?"

"Alright," He replied, "I will."

"Good," Twilight said, smiling. That outburst helped her take off some stress, and she was starting to feel better. She only wished that Spike wasn't the one to take the brunt of it, and maybe someone who wouldn't have been bothered by it, like Pinkie. "Now let's see what's on this book."

Twilight took it over to the podium and eagerly opened up to the first page. While she was a bit annoyed that she was receiving a strange spell book at this time at night with no explanation, she was kind of excited. She wondered what new spells might be in this book, just waiting to be tried out. A book like this could really help her advance in her studies.

When she opened to the book, however, she was surprised. Every line on the first page was crossed out, preventing her from reading anything. On the side of the page, there were multiple check marks going from the top of the page to the bottom. Twilight assumed that this meant that these spells were tested and were successful, but that didn't explain why the spells themselves were crossed out. She flipped through several more pages only to find the same thing, everything crossed out with check marks going from top to bottom.

"What the heck?" Twilight wondered. "Why is everything crossed out?"

"What's the matter?" Spiked inquired, recognizing that Twilight was confused about something.

"Every line in this book is crossed out. I can't read any of it." She answered.

"Really? Lemme see." Spike said.

Twilight turned the book over to him to let him get a look.

"That's weird. Have you checked the rest of the book?" He asked.

"No, only the first few pages, let me check." She answered

Twilight proceeded to check every page only to find everything crossed out with the same check marks from top to bottom. After flipping through each page, she stopped on the second to last page of the book and groaned.

"Ugh. What the heck? Why would somepony give me a spell that I can't even use, and what's the rock even for, anyway?

"Oh cheer up Twilight, there's still the last page. Maybe there's something there." Spike said, trying to comfort her so it didn't feel like all that time had gone to waste.

"I hope so Spike," Twilight answered back, feeling disappointed. She had really hoped that she could learn some new spells from this book, but, evidently, wasn't going to happen. She did, however, still have the rock that she could write to Princess Celestia about in the morning. She might know something about it.

When she turned to the last page, however, she was pleasantly surprised to find that at the bottom of the page, the spell wasn't crossed out. Finally, a spell she could try out!

"Spike, I found a spell, I finally found a spell that I can read!" Twilight shouted exuberantly.

"Really?!" Spike said, with just as much enthusiasm. "That's great! So what's the spell called?"

"It's called "Xen Portal"," Twilight responded, as she read the entry.

"Xen portal, huh?" Spike said, scratching his head. "I've never heard of any spell like that before."

"Me neither Spike, but that just means another spell for me to learn," Twilight said. "But it's strange; the book doesn't say what it does, only how to perform it. I have no idea what a "xen" is, but based on the name, it must be a portal leading somewhere.

"Well how do you?" Spike asked.

"Here, I'll read to you what it says in the book," Twilight cleared her throat. "To perform this spell, the one casting the spell must focus a steady stream of magical energy into the "Xen crystal" sample. The process should take approximately thirty to forty minutes until the crystal begins glow green. Once this happens, cease the stream of magic and give the crystal a few seconds to let the reaction finish."

"What's this "xen crystal" anyway?" Spike asked.

"The xen crystal, Spike, just happens to be the same crystal in the bag." Twilight responded, using her magic to lift the book and turn it to Spike, letting him see a picture of a rock that looked identical to the rock that was in the bag.

"So that's what the crystal is for." Spike said happily.

"I guess so," Twilight said back. "Now that I think about it, by the looks of it, whoever dropped this stuff off wanted me to perform this spell. All the spells but the xen portal are crossed out and they even provided the material needed for that spell. It only makes sense that they wanted this spell to happen, but the only question is why?"

"Who knows?" Spike said, shrugging. "Anyway, what do you want to do with this stuff? Do you want to finish reorganizing the library now?"

"Actually Spike, there has been a change of plan. I want to try this spell out" Twilight told him"

"Wait, what?! Now?! At this hour?!" Spike exclaimed, eyes widening even more.

"Sure, why not?" Twilight answered. "The spell sounds pretty simple, and the book says it'll only take fifteen minutes at the max to perform so why not just do it right now. Besides the library can wait fifteen minutes."

"Can't you wait till morning?" Spiked begged.

"If I don't do it now, I'll be up all night thinking about what the spell does. I just have to do it now."

Ugh, fine Twilight, do whatever you want." Spike groaned.

But just then, Twilight noticed something scrawled in small, but bold, print at the bottom of the page.

_**Warning: While the possibility is very minimal, the spell may or may not bring about unforeseen consequences**_

"Unforeseen consequences?" Twilight thought, looking all over the rest of the page and the back for anything that might answer her question. "What kind of consequences?"

"What's the matter, Twilight." asked Spike, seeing that Twilight was clearly perplexed by something.

"It says at the bottom of the page that there is a minimal possibility for "unforeseen consequences"." Twilight said back.

"Unforeseen Consequences?" Spike asked. "What kind of consequences?"

"The book doesn't say," Twilight said, scowling. "Anyway, if there's only a minimal chance, it should be fine. Let's begin, shall we Spike?"

"Whatever." Spike replied, indifferently.

Twilight cleared away some of the books that were on the floor and placed the crystal in front of her in the area. Her horn began to glow a deep pink as she focused her magic into it. After a few seconds, she released the energy as a beam into the crystal, causing it to glow a deep shade of yellow.

"Alright Spike, I should be fine. You can go up to bed." Twilight said, magic continuing to react with the crystal.

"Nuh uh, I'm staying to see what happens." Spike replied, crossing his arms.

"Suit yourself." Twilight replied.

Twilight continued to beam magic into the crystal for fifteen minutes, but with no results. Spike was starting to get impatient. The book said forty minutes max, so what's going on? Why hasn't anything happened yet? Spike began that this whole thing was just some prank. Somepony thought that it would be funny to write a bunch of garbage into a book, call it a spell book, and leave it at Twilight's doorstep to see if she would fall for it, which she did. The rock was probably just some random gem the prankster dug up.

"Twilight, nothing's happening." Spike pointed out.

"I know Spike; just give it a little time. Something will happen, I know it." Twilight assured him.

"The book said forty minutes at the most, and so far, it's been forty five." Spike retorted, looking at the clock.

"Give it a little longer Spike." Twilight pleaded.

Spike rolled his eyes, "Twilight I really don't think tha-. "

But before Spike could finish, however, it happened! The crystal began to glow a light green just as the book said it would.

"Spike, it's happening! It's actually happening!" Twilight shouted ebulliently, ceasing the beam of magic.

"Well I'll be darned." Spike said, surprised. "I didn't think anything was going to happen."

Twilight backed up from the crystal to let the reaction finish. She was relieved that the the reaction was starting. The spell took a lot out of her and she was beginning to feel exhausted. The crystal continued to glow the same light green color and small sparks of electricity began to shoot out of it. Twilight could also hear what a low continuous buzzing that she assumed originated from the crystal.

"Oooooh, this is so excited!" Twilight squealed with glee. "I wonder where this portal will go, where it will take us. Oh, Princess Celestia's gonna love to hear about this."

Yeah, I bet," Spike responded sarcastically. "Let's Just get this over with."

But at that moment, Twilight began to notice that the crystal started to glow more intensely. The buzzing began to get louder and louder, until it was almost deafening. The sparks flying off of the crystal started to get big and bigger and more and more frequent. Twilight was getting scared. Was this supposed to happen? Is this part of the process or one of those "consequences" the book warned about. She looked over and saw Spike cowering in the corner, hands over his ears and eyes shut tight.

"Twi-Twilight? What's going on? Is this supposed to be happening?" Spike whimpered.

"I… I don't know, Spike," Twilight confessed. "Just stay calm; I'll see what I can do.

Twilight tried to take a few steps towards the crystal, but the light grew even brighter, forcing her to shield her eyes. The sparks grew bigger and bigger until they were full-on bolts of electricity. The bolts were striking everywhere, singeing everything they hit.

"Twilight, what are you doing!?" Spike screamed, seeing Twilight moving forward.

"Trying to f-fix th-this." Twilight stuttered, slowly advancing.

"Twilight, Stop! Those bolts will kill you!" Spike pleaded.

"Don't worry Spike, I got this." Twilight said inching forward, trying to sound calm. In truth, she had no idea what she could do. She thought that a strong enough burst of magic could shatter the crystal and disrupt the reaction, but she didn't know if she had enough magic left to pull that off. Besides, even if she could, there's no way of knowing if it would even stop the reaction. All she would be doing is breaking the crystal into smaller pieces, and the reaction was already well underway. Nevertheless, she had to try. She refrained from projecting a force field around herself to keep her safe, fearing that it would use up what little magic she had left.

Twilight was just a few feet away from the crystal when the biggest bolt yet shot out of the crystal, striking her horn. Twilight screamed in agony, falling to the ground. The pain shot through her head and spread throughout the rest of her body. She felt like she was on fire, and she couldn't hear anything but a loud steady beep.

"Can't… stop… now…." She uttered, trying to get up, but it was no use. When she tried to move, the pain soared to new heights. The pain was too much to bear, causing her to topple over. She coughed a little, causing a few drops of blood to fall from her mouth. She looked at the small puddle for a second before she let her head fall on top of it. She saw her vision blurring and darkness take over as she began to slip into unconsciousness. "Oh gosh… I feel soo… weak, so… tired. Am I… am I dying?"

"Twilight!" Spike screamed, leaving is corner and running over to Twilight "Stay put, I'm coming!"

"Sp… Spike?" Twilight sputtered, looking up to see her assistant running to her. "No… get away… save… yourself."

"No way Twilight, I'm coming over th…" But before Spike could a finish, a bolt struck the floor in front of him.

"AHHHHH!' Spike screamed, falling onto his back.

"Spike!" Twilight tried to shout. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." Spike answered. "What about you? Are you alright?

"Sort of, but I'm still breathing." Twilight said. "Spike, quick, get help now. Find a guard or something, anything to stop this.

"But what about you? I can't leave you like this. Another bolt could hit you, and I know you won't survive that one." Spike protested.

"I'll be fine," Twilight lied. "You need to find help now."

Just after she said this however, another bolt struck dangerously close to Twilight's head causing her to flinch. Meanwhile, more and more bolts were striking everywhere, setting books on fire and scorching the walls.

"See what I mean?" Spike asked scowling "If I leave you here, you're as good as dead."

"If you don't get help, we're all good as dead." Twilight shouted with frustration in her voice.

"Oh alright, I'm going. Just don't move, Ok?" Spike said.

"No worries there." Twilight replied, still in too much pain to move.

As Spike walked over to the door to find help, the glowing began to glow bigger and even brighter. The bolts of electricity became smaller but more frequent. Spike moved back, jumping back and forth to avoid the electricity, but he wasn't fast enough. One struck him in his right foot, causing him to topple over in pain.

"Augh!" Spike grunted, clutching his foot.

"Sp- Spike, are you alright?" Twilight asked, trying to raise her voice, but with no avail. She already exerted herself shouting at Spike to go.

"I… I think so." Spike answered, but when he stood up, he fell over again, shouting in pain.

"It's no good. My foot hurts too much." Spike whimpered, clutching his foot.

"Oh no," Twilight thought, realizing that there was no way to get help. "What are we going to do now?"

By now, the sphere of light had grown big enough that it partially engulfed Twilight. The light was bright enough that Twilight had to press her face into the ground, getting blood into her eyes, and shutting them tight and Spike had to face the wall to avoid being blinded. The buzzing had gone down quite a bit, but grew in volume once again, forcing Spike and Twilight to shut their ears, even though it did little to make it sound quieter.

"Well, it was a good life while it lasted, Twilight thought to herself, memories flashing through her mind as she started to lose consciousness again. She thought of the princesses, to Shining Armor and Cadence, to her friends, and, lastly, to all she's been through with them, since that fateful day that Celestia sent her Ponyville on an assignment to make friends.

"Goodbye to all of you." She thought, tears running down her eyes as she finally fell unconscious. The sphere continued to grow, filling the whole room, until it exploded with a tremendous flash that blew out all the windows and shook the library, grabbing the attention of the soldiers who were on watch and waking a few ponies up.

_Good, good, all is going... according to plan. Don't worry Miss… Sparkle, we've only just begun._


End file.
